Rarest WW2 Free French medal : Ordre de la Libération (Pinches)

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

you will not see this beauty again in a long time from now.

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/Medaille-Cro...n/223728051544

One of the rarest French Awards/medals/orders, and probably the rarest one awarded to French during WW2.
Order created by General De Gaulle in London. Only around one thousand awarded persons.

The beautiful Ordre de la Libération cross, and this one is not only an original British made by Pinches model, but also it is having the first ribbon type.

Only a few hundred of Pinches ODLL were made, and it was awarded up to late 1944 or early 1945, when Paris Mint (La Monnaie de Paris) started to propose its first model (many variations were made since then).
Many original Pinches are presented in the amazing museum at Les Invalides (it's free, and usually not well known, but the visit is just mandatory if you are interested in WW2), but originals almost never went on sale.

The problem with this eBay auction is that the cross was (badly) repainted, and that the price is just ridiculously overpriced.
I suspect some rich (and soon dead) old collectors that "really want it" started a bidding war...

Paris Mint made various models of their own ODLL over the years, but they are just worth a few dozen of euros (despite idiots are buying them hundred if not thousand of euros).

See You

Vince

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

WTF...

Some collectors with too much money imo...

See You

Vince

[irish]

Very interesting. How can one tell the difference between a Pinches ODLL and a Paris Mint type? The ribbon of course is different. What differences are there in the planchette? Thanks Jack

[Ironcrown]

Very informative thread, thanks for posting.
I didn't know about this award and how rare is.

[ROBB]

Very interesting I had not heard of or seen this before. Rob

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

irish, you asked the 21k euro question or so ahah.

Bascially you have 3 families of ODLL (Ordre de la Libération) :

- Pinches models (made in the UK during WW2), the first 171 awarded Frenchmen (before fall 1942, around 1 of 10 awarded Frenchmen) got the first ribbon (shown in the model sold on eBay). Cardboard box is different from the MdP box.

- Monnaie de Paris models : made at best from late 1944 up to... today, many many successive variations using different molds. They can be easily identified as they should have MdP markings, and slightly different designs to the Pinches.
Below is my MdP ODLL (with the clear markings), most of the time proposed for sale as an "original Pinches with MdP markings".

- "homemade" ODLL : they are legion ! Most are quite ugly, and many were post-war made. You can't be fooled by them. It can be an interesting collection, but many other collectors are interested in such "curiosities"...

Original Pinches models (with the first or second ribbon) are even rarer than original Croix de Guerre Légionnaire, so 99 % of the time you will find at best MdP models. 1 of 4 ODLL were awarded posthumously.

See You

Vince

[irish]

Vince,

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I have an example I will post. It looks to be somewhere between Pinches and MdP.
Jack